Lessons In Love
by angel-death-dealer
Summary: [The Italian Job] Charlie and Stella help their son with his homework, and realise he knows a lot more than they expected about Love. Was as a gap filler in After The Heist, but it didn't fit into the story. ONESHOT


**This is just a quick moment that is (hopefully) cute between Charlie and Stella and their children, Alex and Holly. More about Alex and Holly can be found in my other story, After The Heist. This, like another Italian Job fic I have written, Woman in my Arms, is based on an email I had sent to me once.**

**Sam**

**xx**

"Dad!" Alex cried excitedly, running through the house on the afternoon of February the 14th.

Charlie looked up from his paper when he heard his son's voice echoing through the house. Alex Croker was six years old now, and had taken the school bus for the first time that day, whilst usually Charlie drove him. Now though, when he saw his son's excited face, he knew that it had been a good idea.

"Hey, Alex, did you have a good day?" Charlie asked as Alex jumped onto the couch beside him.

"Yeah! We did sprinting, and I won!" He said proudly.

"You did?" Charlie asked. "That's fantastic!" He praised, and Alex grinned proudly.

"And our teacher said it was Valytimes day." He said.

"Valentine's day." Charlie corrected.

"Thats it." He remembered. "She told us all about it. I have to do a quiz for homework and the best answers win. Will you and Mommy help me?" He asked.

"Course we will." Charlie assured him, ruffling his dark hair. "Let's go find her shall we?"

He lifted Alex up into the fireman's carry, which always made him giggle insanely as he was held upside down, and went into the kitchen where Stella was making a bottle for their one-year-old daughter, Holly. Holly recognised her father instantly and began to clap her hands happily at him, smiling and laughing herself. Hearing her daughter's commotion, Stella wasn't at all surprised when she saw Charlie and Alex walking into the room. Charlie set Alex on his feet and he rushed to hug Stella.

"Hey, Sweetie, you have a good day?" She asked him.

"Yeah. I need help with my homework." He said.

"Sure honey, I'll just finish Holly's bottle and then I'll help." She told him

"Ok, Mom. I'll go get it." He told her, rushing out of the room.

Charlie came and hugged Stella from behind. "He's getting more and more like you every day." She told him.

"What?" Charlie asked. "More good looking, sweet and devilishly charming?" He asked her teasingly.

"No." She told him with a smile, turning around to face him and give him a quick kiss. "He's driving me crazy."

Charlie laughed. "I live to please." He told her. He leaned in to kiss her again, but was interrupted by a series of desperate attention pleas from Holly, who had her arms outstretched in the high chair reaching out for Charlie.

"Da-da" She said unfairly, unhappy that Stella was getting attention and she wasn't.

"She's been saying that all afternoon." Stella told him. "Even when your sister was playing with her."

Charlie laughed and went over to Holly's high chair, lifting her into his arms. "What's all this fuss for?" He asked her in a baby voice, which Stella smiled at. Holly stopped whining instantly. "See, thats better." He told her, and she began to fiddle with the nearest button on his shirt that he was wearing. Stella handed him the bottle.

"Here you go." She said, and he began feeding the infant as Alex came back in holding a sheet of paper. Stella and Charlie, still holding Holly, followed him into the dining room where he climbed up onto a chair and read aloud the instructions on the sheet.

"Answer the que-quest-"

"Questions." Stella prompted, who had sat down next to him and was helping him to follow the words with his finger like he had been taught to do at school.

"Answer the questions on love for the Valentine's quiz. The student with the best answers will get a prize of ten dollars." He looked up at Stella. "Mom, I want ten dollars." He told her.

"I'll write down your answers and you can hand it in to your teacher tomorrow." Stella told him. "The first question is How do you decide who to marry?"

Alex looked thoughtful for a moment. "Someone who likes the same stuff as you. If you like sports, she should like sports, so she could keep the chips and dip coming." He said thoughtfully. Writing down his answer with a raised eyebrow, Stella could see that Charlie was trying very hard not to laugh, Stella gave him a warning glance that showed him not to expect Alex's answer to be happening in _their _house.

"Ok, What is the right age to get married?" She asked him, having written down, word for word, his answer.

"Twenty three." He said confidently.

"Why's that Alex?" She asked curiously.

"Because you know them for FOREVER then."

"What would you do on a date that was going bad?" Stella asked, wondering why the children were being asked questions like this at six years old.

"Run home and play dead." Alex said as if it were the easiest answer in the world. Charlie couldn't hold in his laughter. He let out a small laugh that Alex followed with, only Charlie was much redder in the face.

"When is it OK to kiss someone?" Stella asked.

"When they're rich." Alex told her.

"Ok, and last one." Stella announced. "How do you make marriage work?"

Alex went silent for a moment and looked a few times between Charlie and Stella, in which time they both smile curiously at him, wondering if his answer would be. "Can I write this answer down, Mom?" He asked.

"Sure, sweetie." Stella said, and slid the paper over to him, handing him the pencil as well. He covered the paper with one arm, so that neither could see what he was writing, and leaned close to the page while he wrote. After a few minutes, he sat up.

"Finished. Can I go play now?" He asked.

"Course sweetie," Stella said, and Alex grinned, slipping from his chair and running off.

"What did he write?" Charlie asked curiously as both he and Stella leaned in to read his answer. Even though Stella read it aloud, Charlie followed it anyway.

"_You have to tell the girl she's pretty and is special for you, and tell the boy that he's handsome and a good daddy. That means your married forever." _She read out.

"Only Alex." Charlie said with a smile. "Still think he's like me?" He challenged.

Stella grinned at him giving him a kiss over the top of Holly's head. "More than ever."

**Hope you all like it :D It was just something I had to write :D**


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